Aerie (2014)
Aerie (2014) is a sculptural piece by collaborative artists Jennifer and Kevin McCoy exhibited at All Exit in Oakland, California. It is a wall-mounted shadow box containing an oil on canvas background, colour photography, video screen, and electronics. [1]
Formal Analysis
"Aerie" is a diorama-like sculpture set in a small black box with the dimensions 9.5" x 30" x 9" that mixes different landscapes together to create one large fantasy landscape. The oil-painted background draws on parts of the Lord of the Rings landscapes, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Twitter headquarters circa 2014. [2] The Twitter headquarters are represented by a large building with a smaller tower set next to it sporting the Twitter logo and tag "@twitter". These buildings sit on a cardboard cut-out cliff that is painted in a similar technique as the the overall fantasy landscape. Hidden behind the cut-out is a light source that shines reflects light back onto the painted background and creates a back lit effect on the cardboard cut-out cliff and corporate buildings that sit on top. Above the cliff, in the dark painted sky, is a small video screen that displays some buildings. This video screen appears to float above the rest of the diorama as it is towards the top of the box and hung slightly away from the background, casting a slight shadow on the painted cloud background behind it.
Exhibition Techniques
As the first piece of the show All Exit, "Aerie" welcomes viewers as they enter the gallery space. In All Exit, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy exhibit art works that are derived from the landscape of Western California. [3] It takes a largely known online entity, Twitter, from the abstracted online space and turns it into a physical form as a sculpture. [4] for "Aerie", Jennifer and Kevin McCoy draw on the San Francisco Bay Area known as the Silicon Vallery—home to some of the world's largest technology corporations—and bring forth the importance of technology using various mediums. They reduce the large technology corporations to a small figure in a diorama. Paired with the oil-painted fantasy landscape, "Aerie" gives life to "the dreams of a utopian, tech-filled futures". [5] The sculpture is hung on the wall in a position where viewers must come closer to view all the details. From far away, one would not notice the Twitter logo or what is in the floating screen at the top, but would still be able to admire the painted landscapes. However, this sculpture is not your typical dreamy, fantasy landscape as it speaks about the Western California landscapes and culture from a different perspective.
Additional Images
Images featuring "Aerie" can be viewed on Jennifer and Kevin McCoy's website.
References
- ↑ "Mccoyspace: Aerie". Mccoyspace.com. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
- ↑ "Mccoyspace: Aerie". Mccoyspace.com. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
- ↑ "Mccoyspace: All Exit". Mccoyspace.com. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
- ↑ "From Silicon Valley to the Apocalyptic Beyond | East Bay Express". Eastbayexpress.com. Retrieved, 2014-11-12.
- ↑ "From Silicon Valley to the Apocalyptic Beyond | East Bay Express". Eastbayexpress.com. Retrieved, 2014-11-12.
Wiki Authors
Jobie Hui (2014)